


I won't say (I'm in love)

by StrawberryLane



Series: Seven minutes in heaven [4]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Feels, Dorks in Love, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, M/M, POV Outsider, POV Steve Rogers, Peter's only mentioned really, Protective Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 01:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16253801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryLane/pseuds/StrawberryLane
Summary: Bucky suddenly drops the pen onto the table and let’s his head follow it down. He meets the table with a hard thud, groaning. “Oh my god.”“What? You all right?” Steve asks, putting down the spoon he’s using to make sure his bolognese doesn’t burn in the pan.“Oh my god,” Bucky repeats, his eyes wide as saucers as he turns his head to stare at Steve. “I’m in love with Peter.”Steve just stares right back. Finally.“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bucky whines, stretching his arm out to flail at Steve accusingly.





	I won't say (I'm in love)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from I won't say (I'm in love) from disney's 1997 Hercules movie.

Despite the rockiness of his and Bucky’s relationship lately, Steve does wish his best friend all the happiness in the world. No one deserves it more, after all the shit Bucky’s gone through to come out alive on the other side.

 

He kinda just wishes Bucky would have told him about Peter from the beginning. Finding out in front of the kid’s school friends isn’t really the way Steve would have liked for it to go down. So what if Bucky tells him again and again that it it’s fake? That it’s just a ruse to save Peter from the humiliation of admitting that he lied to basically his whole school. It obviously isn’t fake now.

 

Thing is, Steve isn’t entirely sure Bucky has realized just yet. For such a smart person, Bucky can be incredibly dense at times. Especially when it comes to his own happiness and well-being. Always putting others in front of himself. Not that Steve doesn’t realize he’s built the exact same way himself, but really. Sometimes you just gotta take a breather and care for yourself before you care about other people. And if your way of doing so includes fighting aliens or Nazis, volunteering as an abortion clinic escort, talking to your therapists daily, taking scalding hot showers, doing face-masks, sleeping, going on rollercoasters, people-watching or falling in love, then that’s more power to you.

 

Bucky’s way of taking a breather just so happens to include all of those things. Sometime they even overlap, like the time he spent fifty minutes on the phone to Dr Rhodes while fighting slimy seagulls with huge razor sharp teeth. He was also wearing a pink face mask because their quiet night in had gotten interrupted and he hadn’t had time to take it off and wash his face.

 

Sometimes Bucky’s priorities gets a bit messed up.

 

But back to the important things – Bucky’s refusal to realize that he has actual feelings of love for Spider Man and that Spider Man is a 100 % reciprocating.

 

It’s painfully obvious to anyone with functioning eyes. They even went on a date for goodness sake. Every time Steve tries bringing up the fact that they went to Montauk by themselves for an entire day, Bucky actually slaving away in the kitchen for hours beforehand just so that Peter could have “options to choose from”, Bucky obstinately replies something along the lines of, “Yes. That’s what friends do. You and I spend a lot of time hanging out on our own. That doesn’t mean we’re in love.”

 

And then Steve tries to point out that Bucky’s never gone out of his way to cook that much for him – usually it’s just, “I made too much Mac and cheese, want some?” - and then they’re right back to where they started.

 

*

Truth is, Steve basically forgives Bucky the day after their huge argument in the gym. It’s just fun to watch Peter squirm every time they happen to be in the same room. He just wants his friends to be happy and he knows, from previous experience, that trying to change Bucky’s mind is like trying to talk Tony Stark into understanding that maybe, just maybe that fiftieth cup of coffee e in a row is a bad choice. And Bucky is adamant he hasn’t done shit wrong. And in all honesty, he hasn’t. Nothing’s happened yet. Bucky swears it’s fake. That Peter doesn’t like him like that. That he doesn’t like Peter like that.

 

Steve just prays Bucky will keep his hands fully to himself until Peter has at least reached the age of consent. Not that he thinks Bucky won’t, but a Bucky in love is prone to do things he hasn’t really fully thought through. And then he has a habit of not really caring about the consequences. Hopefully, this time, he will.

 

*

Bucky should probably realize that he talks about Peter _all the damn time,_ Steve thinks. But the other man doesn’t seem to realize that it’s Peter this and Peter that and “Peter told me,” and “Peter’s actually doing that this weekend.” and so on. It’s like 80 % of their conversation can somehow be worked around to include a reference to Peter Parker, no matter the subject. What to eat for dinner? Peter went to a really cool Thai restaurant with May this past weekend, maybe Bucky and Steve should check it out. Want to watch some of that Netflix show based on Peggy’s life? That’s Peter’s favorite show. Want to go for a run later? Peter goes running sometimes.

 

Honestly, it’s bordering on deeply ridiculous.

 

And don’t get Steve started on the texting. Bucky’s phone chimes all the time. He’s glued to it. Always sending snapchats to Peter and receiving just as many in return. And then, as if all the texting and the snapchatting is not enough, they spend hours on the phone to each other each evening, as if they haven’t been in constant communication all day long. How do they even have something left to talk about, Steve wonders. “Oh yeah, I did this thing between that text at 2:01 and the snap at 2:04 pm.”

 

Steve has to confiscate Bucky’s phone during dinner, like some suburban mom concerned with how distant and distracted her child has become. And when Bucky whines and begs for his phone back, Steve has to fix him with the Captain-America-is-deeply-disappointed-in-you-son-stare, which just makes Bucky laugh because he can actually tell the difference between Captain America and Steve Rogers. And then they eat a rushed dinner, because Bucky really wants to get back to his phone.

 

But despite his annoyance at the whole ordeal, Steve just wants Bucky to be happy. And if his happiness comes by the way of a slightly clumsy, inherently good-hearted and awkward teenage boy, then so be it.

 

*

It takes Bucky literal weeks, if not months, to realize that his feelings for Peter runs deeper than just a crush or infatuation. That he’s in it for real and in too deep to back out.

 

It happens while they’re in the kitchen, Bucky seated at the table doing a crossword and Steve by the stove, cooking Spaghetti bolognese. He found this really promising recipe on pinterest earlier in the week and has finally gotten around to making it. The aroma in the kitchen is heavenly. Steve’s so hungry he could eat a whole cow by himself. Easy.

 

Crosswords are, Steve’s found, Bucky’s newest way of calming down. He’d come home after a day of volunteering at an abortion clinic, ranting about “fuck-faced bigots and their tiny brains the size of a garlic clove. Seriously, how difficult is it for people to understand that not every woman wants or can afford a baby?”

 

So Steve had made him a cup of coffee and seated his best friend at the kitchen table, shoving the New York Times at him and so there Bucky is, deeply engrossed in the crossword. And now, half an hour and a permanent scowl on his face later, Bucky suddenly drops the pen onto the table and let’s his head follow it down. He meets the table with a hard thud, groaning. “Oh my god.”

 

“What? You all right?” Steve asks, putting down the spoon he’s using to make sure his bolognese doesn’t burn in the pan.

 

“Oh my god,” Bucky repeats, his eyes wide as saucers as he turns his head to stare at Steve. “I’m in love with Peter.”

 

Steve just stares right back. _Finally._

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Bucky whines, stretching his arm out to flail at Steve accusingly. Steve wasn’t aware you could flail accusingly.

 

Steve shrugs. “I thought you knew. You haven’t shut up about him in weeks.” That’s not really true, since Bucky can be really dumb at times, but he doesn’t need to know that.

 

Bucky just whines in answer, sounding deeply stressed.

 

“You, uh, want some of this?” Steve motions to the food bubbling away on the stove. “Or a bath? Nat tells me bubble baths are deeply soothing.”

 

Bucky mumbles something that sounds like “bath, please,” so Steve hauls him up from the table and into the bathroom. Soon enough, the room smells of roses and lemon, there’s a mountain of deeply pink bubbles and Bucky’s up to his neck in scalding hot water.

 

“I’ve been so stupid, haven’t I?” he asks, leaning back against the edge of the tub. “What am I going to do?”

 

“You’ve been kind of stupid,” Steve agrees and then, “Hey, you said it first,” when Bucky cracks one eye open to glare at him. “And as for what you’re going to do, you’re going to let Peter make this choice. Remember his feelings are what matters most in this. You want him to be happy, don’t you?”

 

“I’m not going to do anything stupid,” Bucky replies, looking slightly insulted. “I wouldn’t do that to him.”

 

Steve chuckles a little. “Just make sure you remember that next time you see him,” he says, patting his friend on the head, one of the few parts of Bucky that isn’t submerged in water. And then he gets up, leaving Bucky alone with his thoughts in the bathroom.

 

Dinner is ready and waiting for him, after all.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading and I hope you liked it! Please tell me what you thought!


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